If by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people - their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties - someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad; if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal."
- John F. Kennedy

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Revisionists Strike

If you haven't heard. The upcoming ABC "docudrama" "The Path to 9/11" authored by a notorious right wing hack is gaining a lot of press and not all of it good. In an obvious attempt by the right to change the meta story around 9/11 and blame it on Clinton they may have overstepped somewhat.Not only are none of the left wing blogs allowed to preview it like many of the right wing blogs they are also now taking the unprecedented step of distributing a 100,000 copies to high school teachers around the country. I seriously question the legality of this.

[ABC is] allowing consumers to download the complete miniseries — for free — via Apple’s iTunes Music Store. Mini also will be streamed for free via ABC.com, and XM Radio has pacted with the network to make an audiocast of the film available to its subscribers. […]

To spread the word about “Path to 9/11,” ABC is sending 100,000 high school educators a letter from 9/11 Commission co-chair Tom Keane informing them of the various platforms on which the mini is available. ABC and Scholastic have pacted to produce an online study guide.

Firedoglake has more here and here as does AmericaBlog here and in several later posts.It also appears that ABC/Disney has managed to get the attention of Rep. Louise Slaughter and she is now on the warpath.

Director of The Path to 9/11, billed as "an objective telling of the events of 9/11," admits that film is "not a documentary": The director of the film, David Cunningham, posted on the show's official blog that his work was "not a documentary..." For unexplained reasons ABC has already taken down its blog promoting the show. [Think Progress, 9/2/06]

the path to 9/11 makes numerous questionable claims - such as that the clinton administration passed on a surefire chance to kill or capture bin laden - that have already drawn criticism: Reviews of the filmhave shown it to contain questionable claims. According the reviewers of the film, who include Richard Clarke, former counterterrorism czar for Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, and now counterterrorism advisor to ABC, the film's distorted version of history is inconsistent with the 9/11 Commission Report, upon which it claims to be based. [Think Progress, 9/5/06]

film's writer is a noted conservative activist: The writer of The Path to 9/11 is an unabashed conservative named Cyrus Nowrasteh. Last year, Nowrasteh spoke on a panel titled "Rebels With a Cause: How Conservatives Can Lead Hollywood's Next Paradigm Shift." He has described Michael Moore as "an out of control socialist weasel," and conducted interviews with right-wing websites like FrontPageMag. [Think Progress, 9/1/06]

This is such an out and out attempt to revise history that ABC and Disney should be thwarted on this. This just isn't Disney/ABC pushing an incorrect, and politically partisan version of the events leading up to September 11 on television. They are doing it just 8 weeks before national elections which is bad enough but now they're planning on using this partisan fake history to revise the history of this tragic event to American schoolchildren.

Maybe Congress should look into this a little deeper instead of worry over legislation that would ban selling horse meat for human consumption which is their top agenda priority week. Would I kid you? That's right, with everything else going on the Congress is focused on horse meat.